WSJ launches index of influential New Yorkers

The Wall Street Journal announced Monday the launch of NYIndex, an interactive, dynamically updating list of influential New Yorkers.

Encompassing power players in all of the city’s major sectors, from finance to fashion, education to entertainment, and powered by real-time data from Factiva, one of the world’s most comprehensive databases of news, the NYIndex uses frequency and context of media mentions, among other factors, to determine the rankings.

A special four-page section highlighting the 10 sectors of rankings appears in the Greater New York section on Monday with profiles from Journal contributors including Jason Gay, Ralph Gardner Jr., Sumathi Reddy, Pia Catton, and Anne Kadet.

The NYIndex rankings of influential New Yorkers, which will be updated online every Monday, include interactive components showcasing the biggest jumps and drops on the list.

In parallel with the Factiva-generated list is ‘People’s Picks,’ generated entirely by readers’ votes, and appearing alongside the main Index. A mobile-optimized webpage, People’s Picks enables readers to vote and to easily share their choices across social networks. The top vote getters are displayed each week as People’s Picks, denoted with a thumbs-up icon.

Chris Roush is the Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Show me the Money," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.